SAN FRANCISCO – City Attorney Dennis Herrera today filed suit against the property owners of 850 Geary Street, an apartment building whose tenants have been forced to endure an egregious pattern of housing, building, health and safety code violations for nearly five years. According to the complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court this morning, more than a dozen Notices of Violation and Orders of Abatement have been filed against the building owners by the San Francisco Building Inspection and Health Departments since 2005 — and all have gone virtually unheeded.

“The owners of 850 Geary Street are engaged in unlawful business practices that threaten the health and safety of their tenants and their surrounding neighbors,” said Herrera. “These landlords have been given every opportunity to address their code violations, but have instead chosen to flout the law, to ignore city enforcement agencies, and to allow substandard housing conditions to persist. Their continued defiance has left the City with no choice but to seek a court order to force the owners to fix the problems, to protect tenants and neighbors.”

Named as defendant in Herrera’s lawsuit are James P. Quinn and Patricia D. Quinn, who also the own and manage the building. The City Attorney’s complaint details numerous housing code violations that establish the property as public nuisance, including: 1) lack of certification for boiler room repairs; 2) unmaintained fire escapes; 3) severe cockroach infestation; 4) lack of hot water; 5) unilluminated exit passage ways; 6) lacking heat; 7) a malfunctioning passenger elevator; 8) water intrusion damage in several apartments; 9) a broken window frame; 10) a damaged main entry door; 11) leaking radiator 12) a fire damaged electrical outlet in one of the unit’s bedrooms. Health Department inspectors additionally issued Notice of Violations for bed bugs, cockroaches, and mice.

The case is City and County of San Francisco and the People of California v. James P. Quinn, Patricia D. Quinn et al., San Francisco Superior Court, Filed Jan. 20, 2010. A copy of the complaint is available for download as a PDF on the City Attorney’s Web site at http://www.sfcityattorney.org/ .